Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Funny — funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you?
I make you laugh,? I'm here to %$&@ amuse you?

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Umbrageous appears in the Third.

David R. Godine, Publisher, seeks a driven, independent, creative bibliophile for the position of Production Assistant & New Media Marketing Associate. This is a full-time, entry-level, salaried position, with benefits, located in downtown Boston.

Job Description

Production Responsibilities — Applicant would work directly under the supervision of the Vice President of Production in coordinating the day-to-day tasks of book production, including but not limited to: requesting estimates from printers; proofreading covers and jackets; assembling files for transfer to press; circulating proof and collating changes or recording approval; staying in contact with vendors; and entering metadata into our book distributor databases. Applicant would also play a key role in Godine’s entry into the e-book market.New Media Marketing Responsibilities — In conjunction with the Marketing and Publicity Director, applicant would be required to: write and copyedit posts for the Godine blog, including those from authors; post regularly to Facebook and Twitter; update the GoodReads account; and coordinate the direct-to-customer email newsletter. Applicant would also edit and update the Godine website.

Requirements

Applicants are required to have a bachelors degree or higher. Must have some experience in the publishing industry and be highly proficient, as well as professional, with new media such as Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Knowledge of or experience in e-book production is highly desirable. Experience with Quark and Photoshop is preferred.

Please send your resume and cover letter by email to info@godine.com with the subject line “Production & Marketing Position;”

Or, send them by post to:

Vice President of Production
David R. Godine, Publisher
re: Production & Marketing Position
9 Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Bicycle proponents around the world are taking notice of Jane Jacobs, urban writer – and cyclist. In Toronto, bicycle-artist and bicycle-activist, Janet Attard (aka “Janet Bike Girl”) has installed a visual display of Genius of Common Sense at the entrance to her studio at 401 Richmond Street West. Toronto bike activists admire Jane Jacobs not only for all she did to further sensible treatment of their city, but also for her steadfast preference for bicycles instead of cars.

For years, in all but the most inclement weather, Jane Jacobs rode her bicycle to work in New York City — from her West Village home to her office at Architectural Forum magazine in Rockefeller Center — through almost three miles of city traffic. In her books, articles, and speech, she railed against cities pandering to the automobile by widening streets and building highways. She never obtained a driver’s license or even learned to drive a car. When she moved to Toronto in 1968, she continued to bike around the city. After breaking her wrist in a fall at home, she reluctantly gave up bike-riding to avoid more broken bones. Jane said she envied the Dutch queens Juliana and Wilhelmina who rode their bikes until very old age.

Jane Jacobs on her bike.

Using only images having to do with bicycles, Janet Attard designs beautiful stenciled graphics on paper, cloth, and acetate, portraying individual bikes, generic and famous cyclists, bicycle-related words, or patterns of repeating bicycles. She also collects images of bicycles. In Genius of Common Sense, Janet was happy to find a photo of Jane riding her bike to work and an illustration of Jane and Bob Jacobs on their 1944 honeymoon bicycle-trip, thus learning of Jane’s love of bicycles — but she also found Jane to be an inspirational figure in many other ways. In time for Toronto’s Bike Month, Janet created a display with illustrations from and information about the book to convey her enthusiasm for Jane Jacobs and Genius to bike lovers and numerous sundry visitors to 401 Richmond from near and far.

Janet’s studio is part of a nineteenth-century industrial building rehabilitated by Jane Jacobs’s longtime friend, Margie Zeidler of Urbanspace Property Group. Providing a vibrant creative environment for over 140 artists and micro-entrepreneurs, 401Richmond houses a community reinforced by a newsletter, tenant get-togethers, and communal spaces. The re-tooled building itself embodies the ideas of Jane Jacobs with its mixed uses combining business and the arts along with a strong sense of community. On a brick wall in one of the stairwells hangs a large painting of Jane Jacobs.

Toronto’s cycling community can look forward to an article about Genius of Common Sense scheduled to appear in spring 2011 in Dandyhorse, the magazine for Toronto's urban cyclists.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Over at the Through the Looking Glass blog, they're throwing us a blog party for our Fortieth Anniversary. Yesterday's post was a short overview of the press: “The program has never been large in terms of titles issued, but most have been kept in print and many have found their way into the homes and hearts of what is now an entire generation. Children’s titles are the one genre where creativity in design, writing, illustration, and production are apt to intersect. They are now, and will always remain, an area of vital interest to everyone working here.” Head over there to find out what's in store today!

At the Minneapolis / St. Paul StarTribune, Anthony Bukoski writes: “The collection ends with the hope that began it, though now this hope is reined in, restrained in the way the warrior Old Bull in 1826 would have restrained a palomino or a pinto pony from galloping too quickly into the unknown. What an amazing, moving debut for Eddie Chuculate — rich, thoughtful, eloquent and honest.”

And to all you booksellers in the twin cities: we'll be at the Midwest Bookseller Associate conference on October 1, at the St. Paul River Center. Stop by booth #329 to check out Eddie Chuculate's Cheyenne Madonna as well as our other great new and backlist books — and make sure you take advantage of the Fortieth Anniversary Show Special!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Big news that President Obama has written a children's book for his daughters — but, even bigger news: the President appears in our new book The Lonely Phone Booth . . . or, does he? It's unconfirmed. Examine the evidence yourself:

We're just saying. Look at the guys with ear pieces. And that lady is awfully excited to be in line for a pay phone. (The guy in front of them is probably reading Freedom.)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Temulencyn. Inebriation, drunkenness. Another good one for sick-leave application forms.

Sorry we missed last week's word. Refer to above.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Temulency appears in the first.

Sesquipedalianadj. Inordinately long (of words). Literally, a foot and a half long — hence, a word of that length. As a noun: an inveterate user of such words; a practitioner of the lore contained in this book; a word-grubber. (q.v.)

And their cheers are still catchy.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Sesquipedalian appears in the first.

“Another book of metafiction, Tom McCarthy’s Remainder approaches the same subject as The Journalist from a different direction, less concerned with character and more concerned with form; there’s a similar progression in that book, and it’s a bit surprising that I’ve never seen the two books compared. To my mind, Mathews’s book is superior because it’s more human, pointing out the unreconcilable contradiction between art and life. Mathews’s book is more concerned with text and its ineluctable linearity which forces narratives upon lives. McCarthy’s characters purposefully feel more like puppets, at service to a greater artistic program: this is purposeful, but the human cost of art is left as an exercise for the reader to figure out.”